It had all started about two weeks ago, during the latter half of Golden Week. Kai was in the break room at work when Kotobuki suddenly asked him out.
“N-N-N-No way, do you actually like me?!”
“Um, well, er, you see... yes.”
That was it. No setting the mood, no buildup, just an ambush. Their conversation started off with Kai looking to thank Kotobuki for all the advice she gave him, but when she suggested they see a movie, go shopping together, and eat at a restaurant, he noticed a strange pattern.
How had it come to this? Kai froze in shock, stiff as a statue. Kotobuki was a newbie who was hired just that February, so they’d known each other for a grand total of three months. True, Kai was sort of a mentor to her at work, and his conversations with her were the deepest he’d had with anyone on the job. And it was also true that Kotobuki was a huge anime fan, so they got along well. But Kai only saw her as a good friend at work. He never expected that Kotobuki would be the one who’d have a thing for him! Not that he was necessarily complaining, but it still struck him like a bolt from the blue.
“Uh... Um... Nakamura?” Kotobuki beseeched the man made of marble before her. Her voice wavered and her eyes shifted to and fro. “What...might...your response be?”
Her cautiously asked question brought Kai back to the world of flesh and blood. Kotobuki may have gone with the momentum of the moment, but this nervous wreck of a newbie had summoned the courage to confess her feelings to him. Kai’s man card would be as good as revoked if he didn’t give her the decency of a response.
“I-I’ll be honest,” stammered Kai. It was his first time being asked out by someone of the opposite sex, and by such a cute one at that, so his pitch shot up in panic.
“Y-Yes, pwease,” stuttered Kotobuki, stiff as a defendant waiting for a judge’s verdict. Her voice was scratchy and her eyes were bulging.
“To be honest...”
“R-Right, please be honest...”
“It...doesn’t feel real.”
“So you actually hate me?!” Kotobuki’s eyes watered in shock.
“Absolutely not!” corrected Kai, desperate to calm the small, sobbing, and shaking creature he knew as his coworker. “I like you, Kotobuki. But you know that thing in manga where a guy isn’t sure if he ‘likes someone as a woman,’ right? To be honest, I don’t know either. I don’t know the different kinds of likes. So, uh, that’s why I don’t think I can go out with you sorry!” he blurted out, his words running together. “But I like you!”
Kai scrambled to lay all of his thoughts on the table. He could never hate Kotobuki; for his sake and hers, he had to make that as clear as he could. Letting her get the idea that he thought she was pathetic or lame wasn’t an option.
“O-Okay, Nakamura, I understand your feelings. Just...don’t gush about how much you like me. You’re making me blush...”
Kotobuki breathed a sigh of relief. Shortly after, her cheeks began to redden. She stared off into space as though she was too embarrassed to look at Kai’s face any longer.
Kai found every step of this process adorable. He could never bring himself to hate her.
“In that case,” suggested Kotobuki, her body fidgeting as she continued averting her gaze, “shall we have a date anyway?”
“Isn’t going on a date when we’re not gonna be an item...er, a tad questionable?” Kai’s brain was still scattered, so he responded with a mix of his typical tone and the vocabulary he used for Kotobuki.
“May I inquire as to what about it is so questionable?”
“It should be obvious. It would feel insincere, as though I were leading you on.”
“Nakamura,” said Kotobuki smugly, “I believe you read too much manga.” She was getting back to her usual pace.
“May I inquire as to what you mean by that?”
“I don’t believe there’s anything insincere about merely going on a date simply because you’re uncertain whether or not you’ll become lovers. In fact, you could say it’s a more realistic proposition for the both of us to have a chance at testing our compatibility.”
“Indeed, you have a point.” Kai still couldn’t quite wrap his head around it, but he could potentially change his tune about Kotobuki as they continued to go on dates.
“In fact, you could be the one who disappoints me.”
“Yes, an excellent point!” So excellent that Kai accepted her argument before he had the chance to take offense.
This was Kotobuki’s chance to drive it home. She placed her hands on her chest and asked, “Nakamura, am I not cute?”
The way she said that with a straight face would seem obnoxious to someone who didn’t know her well.
“Yes, I think you are very cute.”
“R-Right, of course.”
The way her eyes darted around the moment she was agreed with could lead that same someone to think she was an emotional trainwreck.
“Do you not find the proposition of dating someone as cute as I to be quite the bargain?”
“To the point of being a fire sale, if not an act of philanthropy.”
“I find it questionable that you would debase yourself so, but either way, how could you possibly let such a golden opportunity slip away?”
“Indeed, it would take much contemplation to find a good reason.”
“And you don’t have any other lovers, correct? Not even any potential partners to point to?”
“In fact, I’ve been without a girlfriend for sixteen years.”
“Then would a date with me present any problems?”
“Hmmm,” said Kai as he crossed his arms. Truth be told, there was still one; this was the fact that Kai considered the very prospect of romantic relationships to be exhausting. No matter how cute the girl, he’d rather be friends than lovers. The commotion of the past few weeks had made that abundantly clear to him.
On the other hand, Kai thought, Kotobuki wants a relationship so much that I feel like we’d be talking past each other if I said that...
“It’s merely a date to me,” Kotobuki continued. “I won’t demand responsibility or the like from you after the fact. I promise you this.”
Kai would be nothing more than a coward to force a younger girl to pour her heart out like that and still turn her away.
“Okay,” said Kai as he uncrossed his arms. “Guess we’ll go on a date.”
He went back to his natural tone and accepted. Kotobuki’s face immediately lit up...but she soon directed her smile to the floor.
“...I’m happy,” she whispered. She dropped her stiff, listless tone too, now sounding as though she was savoring the moment. Kotobuki Hotei was obnoxious and emotionally unstable, but more than anything else, she was adorable.